Ace of Spades

Disclaimer: I own nothing, and I deny everything.

Warnings: Yaoi, angst, romance.

Author: Koneko Shido

Ace of Spades - Part 2.

Seto Kaiba had never been one to pray for anything. He considered it begging, and therefore something he would never do. But then, he never thought he would find himself sitting on a plastic chair in a hospital waiting room, surrounded by sterile white walls and the air of death, waiting to find out if he would ever be able to tell Yami what the pharaoh needed to hear so very badly. Right now, not knowing if Yami would live or return to the puzzle permanently and be lost to him, Seto Kaiba prayed.
'Let him live. I don't deserve your favour, it isn't for me. Please let him live.' The brunette thought, his hands clasped loosely together in front of him as he stared blankly at the floor.
'I should tol told him. This never needed to happen, things never had to go this far. I should have told him. I should have seen this, I should have *known*.' He hissed angrily at himself, clenching his teeth tightly. He felt like a fool, and he hated it. He'd had the opportunity to tell Yami everything the night before, but he's passed it up, believing that the pharaoh would be fine as he was. He had known there was something wrong, yet he had decided to let Yami tell him in his own time. He should have known that Yami was going to do something drastic, the look in his eyes had been like staring into the face of death itself. The despair in that crimson gaze had shocked him to his core, yet still he had said nothing. If he had one more chance, just one more opportunity to see Yami, he would forget his fears and tell the pharaoh that he was loved. It didn't matter now if the feeling was mutual. It didn't matter if Yami wanted him or not, the whole point was just to let Yami know that someone, *anyone*, still needed him. Even someone he hated with every fibre of his being. Even someone it was claimed had no heart to give. Even someone like Seto Kaiba.
He'd called Yuugi and lied to him easily, telling the boy that his darker half would be staying with him for a while. The purple-eyed boy had been worried and suspicious, but he had always been intuitive, and the tones of Seto's voice had told him that this was something important that did not involve him. It was something between the two of them, be it a duel or something more, and he'd felt nothing but calm through the link his yami shared with him, indicating either peace, sleep or... But no, Seto Kaiba was many things, often arrogant, cold and self-serving, but he was not a murderer. The hikari had trusted Seto, told him that he knew Yami would be safe. After all, Yuugi was right in thinking that Seto Kaiba's honour was one of the things he prized most, and all he wanted was to beat Yami in a duel, nothing more. He didn't want to hurt the pharaoh, just prove himself and regain his title.
Seto had agreed that this was correct, and Yuugi had told him that he would like to hear from his yami when the pharaoh could come to the phone. The link was only strong enough to communicate in words when Yami resided in the puzzle, so for the time being all Yuugi could sense was emotions, or the peaceful calm that surrounded his darker half at the moment. Seto had given his word to take care of Yami, and Yuugi had believed him. Somehow, it hurt Seto to know that he'd already broken his word by letting Yami get near those pills.
Yuugi had believed that all he wanted was to beat Yami in a duel. If only they knew, duels meant nothing to him any more. What he wanted was a miracle, life over death, the power of God, something all his money could never buy him. What he wanted was luck.
'Luck is for those without skill,' a motto he'd believed. But right now, sitting through the hardest hours of his life, skill couldn't help him and luck was more Jounouchi's specialty. What he wanted was obsolete. It no longer mattered what he wanted, it wasn't about him any more. But still, he wanted Yami to live. He knew in that moment - a revelation that would stay with him for the rest of his life - that he would gladly give half his soul to death to stop it taking Yami from him.
'Anything. My whole soul, my life, anything. I've loved him for so long, he can't leave me now. I would give anything I have. *Everything* I have. Let him live.' Seto pr, be, begged, pleaded. He'd never prayed before. But then, he'd never needed to before. Even when Pegasus had taken Mokuba's soul, even when Gozaburo had used him like some pathetic little whipping boy, even when he and Mokuba had been left to rot in that god-forsaken orphanage... He'd never once prayed. Always so confident in his own abilities, he'd known at all of those darkest times in his life that he could save himself. His life, what he needed to protect, what he needed to do or get, it was all in his own hands and he could control what would happen. This, though, he had no control over. He couldn't think his way out of this one. This situation left him helpless, more so than he'd ever been in his life, and all he had left to do was pray like someone who believed that God, or Ra, or whoever listened, woanswanswer them.

* * *

Three hours went by in a blur of anxiousness and frustration. He called from the hospital payphone and had someone take care of Mokuba, and longed for a cup of coffee but refused to leave the waiting room to fetch one. His hands were shaking a little, he noticed, as the time wore on.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity of begging any god who would listen to let Yami stay with him, a doctor entered the room and called out his name.
"Kaiba Seto?" The man looked to him as he stood up and stalked over, his teeth clenched as he expeted the worst.
"How is he?" Seto asked, his voice sounding harsh even to his own ears. The doctor gave him a reassuring smile and led him outside the waiting room into the relative privacy of the quiet corridor.
"He'll live. We had to pump his stomach, but he should recover in a few days. It's lucky you bought him in so soon, if those pills had had the chance to make their way into his bloodstream there wouldn't have been much we could do."
"Can I see him?" Seto asked, his eyes telling the doctor that the answer had better be yes.
"Alright, I'll show you to his room. He should be waking up soon, and I suppose he'll want to see a familiar face." The grey haired doctor said, leading Seto off down the corridor towards Yami's room. As they walked, Seto could tell that the doctor wanted to ask about the circumstances surrounding Yami's overdose, and he could foresee having to pay off the hospital to destroy the records of the incident. He didn't want Yami ending up on a psychiatric ward, after all.
After a few minutes of walking, they came to a stop outside a nondescript white door and the doctor turned to the tall young man in front of him.
"Here you are. He's very weak at the moment, so try not to upset him. Also, I'm going to need to talk to you afterwards and ask you a few questions."
Kaiba nodded curtly and entered the room, glancing back once at the doctor as he walked away.
The first thing that struck Seto as he closed the door behind him and faced the bed in the middle fo the room was the fact that Yami's wrists were strapped down, hospital policy for attempted suicide patients. The second thing he noticed was that, though Yami's eyes were closed, there were tears streaming down his pale cheeks and his soft breaths kept hitching slightly as he cried. Walking over slowly, Seto moved to siwn own on the chair beside the bed and stroked the pharaoh's sweat-damp hair, noting the dark shadows beneath his dulled crimson eyes as they opened slowly and moved to meet his own.
"I'm alive..." Yami whispered, his voice weak and showing that he was disappointed to still be breathing. Seto nodded.
"Are you going to try again, when you get out?" The CEO asked quietly, his blue eyes searching the ruby gaze before him.
"Pass me the cards, in the pocket of my coat." Yami murmured, and Seto frowned for a moment then turned to where the pharaoh's coat hung on a hook ont he wall, reaching ito the pocket and drawing out a deck of cards. They weren't duel monsters cards, though, just normal playing cards. Turning back to Yami, Seto placed the deck down on the bed next to his hand, which was strapped down.
"Thank you." Yami murmured, then cut the cards with his eyes closed. "Take it." He told Seto, watching as the brunette took the card he'd picked from the middle of the deck and turned it over. The Ace of Spades stared back at him, and Seto frowned, looking down at Yami, who smiled at him sadly with tear-filled eyes.
"you shouldn't look so upset," Yami commented at Seto's expression, "It's only a game, after all."
Growling, Seto took the card and tore it in half slowly, keeping his eyes locked with Yami's.
"I'm not going to let you die that easily." He told the pharaoh, who sighed and turned away to stare out of the window across the room.
"Why should you care? None of this will be blamed on you, you should be glad to be rid of me." Yami whispered, closing his eyes for a moment in pain.
"Urusai!" Seto suddenly hissed, his eyes flashing. Yami turned back to him with a start and gasped at the anger in his voice. "I would never want you dead!"
"Seto-" Yami gasped, but the CEO cut him off, glaring.
"I have something to tell you that I should have said a long time ago." Seto growled, as Yami frowned in confusion.
"What?" The pharaoh asked, his eyes widening when Seto leant over him, the CEO's breath warm on his lips.
"I need you." Seto murmured, then caught Yami's lips in a soft kiss, giving Yami the chance to pull away before deepening it into something more passionate, his hand sliding up to bury his fingers in Yami's wild hair.
When the kiss finally ended and Seto pulled back, he was shocked to find that Yami was crying silently again, tears falling from his wide red eyes.
"Yami?" The taller duellist whispered, confused. "What is it?"
The pharaoh gave a soft sob of pain and looked up at Seto, forcing his words out through the lump in his throat.
"Back... Back in Egypt. I-I loved Seth, my priest, but in the end he betrayed me."
Seto frowned for a moment then realized what Yami meant, frowning.
"I'm not Seth. I will never betray you. I'll never hurt you." He said.
"S-Seto..." Yami sobbed, feeling pathetic but not caring any more. "Swear to me you'll never leave me?" He all but begged. Seto leant down and unbuckled the straps binding the pharaoh to the bed, lifting his frail form up and cradling him in strong arms.
"I swear." The brunette murmured, holding Yami protectively. "But you have to swear you'll never leave me either."
Yami understood what Seto meant by that and curled closer to him, leaning his head against the executive's strong, warm chest.
"Yes. I swear." The pharaoh whispered, looking up in time to see Seto smile down at him.
"Then get dressed, we're going home."

TBC
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